Deb: Not hubby, son#2 - who now, because of MY foolishness, is afraid of horses. I am so mad at myself for that!
We were hammered with another snow storm. The big, BIG city south of us says they have received 105 inches of snow so far this winter - since, every time they get 2-4" we get 6-8" up here, I don't want to even think of our total!! There is a place in the U.P. that averages 160" a year. I always thought that was crazy - I would hate to live in a place with that much snow. I was right - I do hate it!
We are building Ice Cream a calving pen today. She started bagging up earlier this week. Since she's a heifer, we *assumed* we had time to get things squared away (our best calculations put her calving in mid March - not ideal timing for our weather/temps, considering the size of a miniature calf at birth, but doable). Last night her bag had doubled in size and she's showing more advanced signs of imminent birthing, so hubs is out buying gates to rig up the pen right away. Once she begins calving, I will need to be out there with her - and, once the calf or calves come, I will have to stay out there for AT LEAST the first 24 hours. Yay. My Dad said that, if I just couldn't do it anymore and had to come in, I'd have to bring the calf/calves inside with me. I would very much like to avoid doing that, as it isn't good for them or their Momma. Why all the drama, you may be asking? Well, night time temps are dropping back below zero this coming week, and a miniature calf is only 12-15" tall and approximately 10 pounds at birth, so these weather conditions are dangerous for any calving but especially these. Ahh, best laid plans of us newbie farmers, eh?!
April is adjusting well. I am realizing that she is a little stinker about some things - we save all our feed and chop bags (store them in the barn, stuffed into a large feed bag) and for the past couple days I have been finding empty feed bags in the run-in! I swear, she's fearless - she reaches over the divider, snatches a bag, and plays with it! Found one, completely opened up and spread out on the floor, where she was prancing around on it; and found another - still folded - floating in the horse waterer! Hubby was upset and moved the bag-of-bags, but I thought it was fantastic! I see her being my bomb=proof horse, if she's already playing with large feed bags on her own!
Hubs just called to say they have cornish X at the feed store, so he's picking up 24-30 of them! We raised 12 this past fall. They are the STINKIEST birds I've ever dealt with! On the plus side, they grew very quick, were low maintenance, and WOW were those breasts HUGE!! We could only fit three breasts in a gallon freezer bag - I'd guesstimate that they were 3X the size of store bought - and they were the most tender and delicious chicken we'd ever had! So, yippee! More chicken-fried-chicken!
I think April is helping him quite a bit though. He went out with me on our one 'warm' day. Jim was right there, and DS didn't get scared - he was trying to get April to follow him along the horse paths, through the snow, in the pasture while I did some clean up work. If he will continue to help me in little ways with April, I think his fear will subside 
